Video: MINI Lands Unassisted Backflip

On a snowy ramp in Tignes, France, aptly-described daredevil Guerlain Chicherit successfully backflipped a MINI Countryman racing car. MINI teased this stunt back in January, but neglected to show us how the landing went in that port-side attempt. Call me skeptical, but I imagine that if the landing had gone as planned, we’d have seen it. Forgetting the earlier attempts, now MINI is showing us the whole stunt gone well. Video after the jump.

What makes the stunt remarkable is not that it’s a backflip, but that it’s an unassisted backflip. There was no stunt “kick” built into the bottom of the car to get it rotated all the way around. The car did it all on its own, or at least, fully on the shape of the ramp. It’s one hell of a stunt no matter how you do it, so kudos to MINI and Guerlain Chicherit for pulling it off.

That weren’t no MINI. I’d call it more of a MINI-themed monster truck. I call shenanigans. Did you see the jacked-up suspension on that car near the end of the video? The AMC Eagle just called, and said, “hey man; I INVENTED that look! How dare you!”

MF’r_Jones

I did that with a Hot Wheel once when I was kid

Mysticeti

Sweet. But wasn’t that a gainer, not a back flip?

oldsbear

Inspiring.

JonPD

Nothing that increadible, just another stunt. A known mass, acceleration, angle of departure, and center or mass and you have most what you need to figure out that angle/height to be able to land it. Still takes guts to toss your car into the air but people have done this for a very long time in all sorts of vehicles.